Day 2 of the Season XV World Poker Tour Rolling Thunder $3,500 Main Event finishing up on Monday night at Thunder Valley Casino Resort with 57 players remaining from the field of 421 entries. Topping the pack was WPT Champions Club member Niall Farrell (pictured) with a stack of 893,000, and he’ll be looking to follow Sam Panzica and become the second two-time winner of the season.
Farrell stormed to the chip lead when he busted Chris Moorman in the latter half of Monday’s action. With the final board reading 
, Farrell checked to Moorman, who moved all in for about 130,000. Farrell quickly called with the 
for the nut straight, and all Moorman could do was show his 
in defeat before he made his way to the rail. To read the full hand, click here.
Farrell’s lead is that of nearly a quarter of a million in chips, with Chuck Nguyen in second place with a stack of 644,000. Rounding out the top five were Alex Foxen (568,000), John Hadley (471,000), and Sorel Mizzi (466,000).
Earlier in Season XV, in November of 2016, Farrell topped a field of 323 entries in the WPT Caribbean $5,000 Main Event to win $335,000.
Looking to win your way to a World Poker Tour event for your shot at becoming a WPT champion? Play for your chance on ClubWPT.com, where eligible VIP Members can play for over $100,000 in cash and prizes each month, including seats to WPT events, no purchase necessary.
Of the 57 that return, only 53 will reach the money. A min-cash is worth $5,862, but they’re all gunning for the $284,638 first-place prize.
In addition for Farrell, there are six WPT Champions Club members remaining. Brian Altman bagged up 358,000, Mohsin Charania finished with 321,000, Kevin Eyster ended Day 2 with 314,000, Olivier Busquet bagged 264,000, “World Famous” Pat Lyons finished on 230,000, and Lee Markholt will enter Day 3 with 140,000. Charania will be looking to improve upon his second-place finish from last year in the WPT Rolling Thunder event, and if he does he would win his record-tying third WPT title.
In addition to the title chase, six players remained in line to win the WPT California Swing for Season XV. Heading into Day 3, Rainer Kempe was atop the leaderboard with 212 points. Altman (115 points), Kevin MacPhee (113 points), Dean Baranowski (110 points), Charlie Carrel (85 points), Derek Wolters (84 points), and Charania (65 points) are the six that can still win.
Then there is the Hublot WPT Player of the Year race for Season XV. After his victory in the recent WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star $7,500 Main Event, Sam Panzica (2,450 points) jumped to second place on the leaderboard, just 50 points behind the leader, Ben Zamani (2,500 points). Both Panzica and Zamani busted on Day 2 of WPT Rolling Thunder, opening the door for a few others in the field to make some progress towards the top. But with Panzica’s elimination, no one will be able to catch Zamani in this event, which is the third-to-last WPT Main Tour event of the season eligible for Hublot WPT Player of the Year points.
With a WPT Rolling Thunder victory, Lyons could move to third place in the Hublot WPT Player of the Year race, and Farrell could jump to fourth.
Day 3 of the WPT Rolling Thunder $3,500 Main Event will kick off at 12 p.m. PT. Stay tuned to WPT.com for continued coverage of the event.
Looking to win your way to a World Poker Tour event for your shot at becoming a WPT champion? Play for your chance on ClubWPT.com, where eligible VIP Members can play for over $100,000 in cash and prizes each month, including seats to WPT events, no purchase necessary.